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Table of ContentsIntroduction .................................................................................................... 3
Quick Start Guide .......................................................................................... 4
Step 1: Setup Your Account .......................................................................... 7
How Does Pricing Work? .........................................................................11
Step 2: Upload Your List.............................................................................. 13
Step 3: Building Your First Email ............................................................... 18
The Library ............................................................................................... 19
Using the Wizard .....................................................................................22
The Email Canvas .................................................................................... 28
Write / Paste / Edit Text ...........................................................................33
Create Links .............................................................................................36
Personalize Your Message Using Merge Fields ...................................... 36
Step 4: Launching and Analyzing Your Email ..........................................40
Reporting ................................................................................................. 42
Marketing Tips .............................................................................................45
Building Blocks – Relationship Building ................................................... 45
Ask for Permission ..................................................................................45
Nuture the Relationship for Maximum Potential ...................................... 46
Reporting: How Are You Using It, Or Are You? ....................................... 47
Social Sharing ..........................................................................................49
Common Email Marketing Mistakes .......................................................... 51
VerticalResponse Marketing Lingo 101 ..................................................... 52
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IntroductionWhy VerticalResponse?If you’re looking to grow your business by marketing to your customers but you’re short on time and resources, VerticalResponse is the perfect solution. At VerticalResponse we strive to make small businesses look like giants (and who doesn’t want to look like a giant?).
Small businesses today increasingly rely on the ease and affordability of tools like those VerticalResponse provides. In just a few minutes you can easily create professional looking e-newsletters, direct mail postcards, and online surveys to engage your customers, learn more about them, and increase sales. You’ve got a few minutes to increase your sales don’t you?
Simply put, we are an online (Software-as-a-Service) provider that allows anyone, regardless of technical experience, to create & send emails, surveys, and postcards from any web browser.
As a company, we pride ourselves on being experts in marketing and the products we build, sell and support. This guide is proof that we practice what we preach.
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Quick Start Guide 9 Easy Steps to Send Out Your First Email Campaign There is a lot of great, detailed information to be found throughout this guidebook. But what if you need to get an email out right now and don’t have time to read through everything first? Just follow the 9 easy steps below:
1. Open Your Free VerticalResponse Account – If you don’t already have
an account, you’ll need one before you can do anything else. Sign-up from our
homepage at http://www.verticalresponse.com/guidebook and your account will be
ready to go in a few minutes.
2. Upload Your List(s) – You’ll find a New List link on both the Home and Lists
sections of your account. Click that link and the system will walk you through the rest
of the process. When you’re done, you should have at least one list in your account
alongside your Master List.
Just note that your list will need to be in either Comma Separated Values (.csv) or
Text Tab Delimited (.txt) format before you can upload it. These are the two standard
spreadsheet formats, so just about any spreadsheet or contact management
program (like Excel) will have the option to Save As or Export To one of these
formats.
3. Upload (or Find) Your Images – The Library section of your account is where
you upload the images you want to use in your emails. Don’t have any images?
Just search through the 75,000 pictures in our free Stock Photo Gallery to find the
pictures or images you need.
Any uploaded images need to be in JPEG (.jpg) or GIF (.gif) format. Using one of
these two formats ensures your pictures will look right to all your recipients.
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4. Edit Your Images – Use the Library’s editor to resize, crop, flip or rotate your
pictures. You can edit any image in your Library by mousing over it and clicking the
pencil icon. You can also access the editor when you’re adding pictures to
your email.
5. Choose Your Email Builder – There are four different email editors in
VerticalResponse: the Wizard, the Canvas, Freeform, and Plain Text.
The ✓ Wizard is a template-driven editor that is great for new users.
The ✓ Canvas is a graphical HTML editor with enhanced design options and flexibility
Freeform ✓ allows users to copy and paste their own pre-designed HTML code into our system
Plain Text ✓ can be used to create simple text emails without pictures or logos
6. Build Your Email – Several sections of this guide provide detailed instructions on
how to use the various email creation options. If you need specific help, you should
check those sections (page 22 for the Wizard, page 28 for the Canvas).
7. Launch Your Email – After you’ve designed your email, it’s time to send it out.
Launching an email through VerticalResponse is a quick and painless five-step
process:
Preview: ✓ This tab – as you might expect – provides a preview of your email message.
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Send Test: ✓ From here you can send tests of your email to your own email address and to a list of other people who may want to look over your message before you launch it to your list.
Select Lists: ✓ You can select one or more lists as the audience for your message. If you select more than one list, then we’ll automatically de-duplicate email addresses that may exist between those lists so every recipient receives only one copy of your email.
Schedule: ✓ You can choose for the email to be sent as soon as possible or schedule it for a date/time in the future. Just choose your scheduling option and proceed to the next tab.
Launch: ✓ VerticalResponse will ensure you’ve completed all the previous steps before allowing you to launch. If you missed a step, you’ll need to go back and finish it before continuing. But if everything is ready, click the Launch button.
8. Share Your Email on Facebook and Twitter – Use our built in Social
Sharing feature to post a link to an archived version of the email to your Facebook
wall and Twitter feed. This is a great way to get your message in front of even more
people.
9. Look Over Your Reports – Once your email is sent, you’ll immediately begin
seeing reporting that tells you who opened your email, clicked on links (and which
links they clicked), bounced and unsubscribed. You can also turn on more advanced
– and free – reporting like Google Analytics Integration and Click-to-Conversion
Tracking by changing the Analytics Settings found within your Account section.
That’s it for the Quick Start Guide. Now we’ll examine each of the above steps in much more detail.
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Step 1: Setup Your AccountBefore you reap all the benefits that VerticalResponse has to offer you must first create an account from our website. Creating an account is easy to do:
1. Visit our website at http://www.verticalresponse.com/guidebook.
2. Fill out the form that can be found right in the middle of the page.
3. After you’ve submitted the sign-up form we’ll send you a confirmation email that
requires you to click on an activation link within the message to complete the set
up of your account. Once you’ve done that you can log into your account and get
started.
4 You’re done! You can now go back to www.VerticalResponse.com and log into your
account.
At no point in this process do we ask for your credit card or payment information – that’s because the account itself is free. All the steps described in this guide (aside from actually launching an email), can be performed without any payment. We’ll take a look at how pricing works, along with the different payment options, at the end of this section.
Now that you have an account, go ahead and take a few minutes to look over all the different tools that are available to you. These tools are sorted into a number of sections listed across the top of every part of the account. Let’s quickly go over each of these sections.
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HomeThis is the homepage for your account. Think of it as your command center for generating revenue! The homepage provides shortcuts to a lot of the things you can do with your account – like start a new email, upload a list, and look over reporting.
One of the nice aspects of this section is that it’s customizable. If you don’t like where the Reports widget is located, for example, you can drag it anywhere else on the page. You can also adjust the number of items displayed by clicking the edit button in the lower right hand corner of each widget. This is your VerticalResponse Home, so make it yours!
EmailsAs you might expect, the focus of this section is the emails you create and send out. It’s split into two subsections – Drafts and Sent Emails. Drafts is where you can start new emails and continue work on saved ones. Sent Emails is where you can find the reporting (opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, conversions) from all the emails you’ve sent out.
PostcardsThis section allows you to create direct mail postcards that we’ll print and mail for you First Class through the USPS. We may be email providers, but we still know the value of good ole snail mail. Keep our postal carriers working! You can either upload your own design for the front of the card, or choose an image from our Free Stock Photo Gallery.
SurveysFrom here you can easily create online surveys to collect opinions and feedback from your customers that will help you make more informed business decisions. Surveys can be built from scratch or using one of a number of templates we’ve included.
Lists
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The Lists section is where you upload, manage and build your list. Lists is split into three primary subsections:
Mailing Lists – Where you handle the importing and management of your mailing
lists.
Opt-in Forms – You’ll have your very own opt-in form waiting for you in your
account. By adding this form to your website or blog you’ll be able to capture new
subscribers who wish to join your mailing list. If you want to customize the default opt-in
form, a wizard tool will walk you through this process. If you don’t already have an opt-
in form on your website, putting one together with this free wizard should be one of the
first things you do.
Segments – This is a list segmentation tool that allows you to create more targeted
lists using any information you’ve uploaded to your account and any reporting data
collected from sent emails. You can also use this tool to exclude specific records from
your mailing list based on criteria you’ve set as well as testing different versions of your
email via an A/B split test.
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LibraryThis is our free image hosting and editing tool. It’s also home to our Stock Photo Gallery, which includes 75,000 free images provided by Photos.com. That’s right FREE, we picked up the tab for these. Also, any images you upload or find here will be available to add to your emails, postcards or surveys as you’re building them.
CalendarCalendars usually don’t need much of an introduction, and this one is no exception. Keep track of emails that have been sent out, emails that are scheduled to go out, personal events, and holidays here. We’ll pre-populate the holidays for you, depending on the timezone/location you’ve set within your account profile.
CommunityThis is our VerticalResponse Marketing Lounge, a social network where you can join thousands of VerticalResponse users (along with all our employees) to chat about marketing tips for growing your business and also how to get the most from VerticalResponse. You can also see what the hot topics are at any given moment. Check it out, it’s free! http://lounge.verticalresponse.com
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AccountThis is the home of your account profile, settings, subscription management, advanced analytics settings and purchase receipts. Although it may seem a little boring, it’s a very powerful tab.
HelpThis is our “How To Do Everything” website, home to more than 40 video tutorials (and an equal number of text tutorials) that can show you how to do anything with your account. You can also access our archived webinars here.
How Does Pricing Work? We’ve used the word free several times in describing each of the sections above - so where does actual payment come in? With our flexible approach you pay for the emails you send out, the postcards you mail, and the surveys you launch. None of the other features (like the image hosting in the library or the sent email reporting) cost a thing. You can pay for email either As-You-Go or on a Subscription basis:
Pay-As-You-Go: With this option you are purchasing email credits that can be used at any time. Each purchased credit is equal to one recipient – so sending an email out to 500 people would require that you have at least 500 credits in your account. Credits can be purchased at the time of launch, or in advance and in bulk (the more you buy, the cheaper individual credits become). There are no minimums for a purchase of credits and they do not expire for a year.
Great for: A business that mails on a varied (seasonal, quarterly, etc) schedule.
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Subscription: A subscription is based upon the size of your list database. You subscribe to a tier that matches the size of your list database, and you can then send unlimited mail out to that list database for a flat monthly fee. Note that we calculate the size of your database by counting the number of unique records in your account based on email address - duplicate email addresses are not counted twice.
Great for: A business that mails consistently every single month.
To check out prices for both of these options, use the Buy More link within your account or visit the Pricing page on our website. Either option could be cheaper depending on how frequently you send email.
Also note that 501c3 non-profit organizations within the US, and similar organizations in other countries, can use our email service for free (up to 10,000 emails/mo). Take a look at the Pricing page on our website for details.
Now that we’ve setup and taken a short tour of your account, let’s walk throught the steps for sending your first email. (See page 4 for a quick start.)
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Step 2: Upload Your ListBefore you can send an email out through VerticalResponse, you’ll need to have your list ready to go. If you are collecting email addresses using an opt-in form from VerticalResponse your list is already in your account. Otherwise you’ll need to upload your list. You can have any number of lists in your account, with any number of records stored within each list. When you send an email (or direct mail postcard), you’ll choose which of your lists you want to use for that mailing.
It’s important to note that VerticalResponse maintains a strict anti-spam policy as this helps us achieve extremely high delivery rates for the emails you send. We don’t allow the use of purchased, rented, or harvested lists. We require that email sent through our service only go to those people who have requested to receive that email in one way or another (i.e., through your website, over the phone, at a tradeshow, etc.).
To upload a list, navigate to Lists > Mailing Lists > New List
Once you agree to our anti-spam terms & conditions, you’ll be given the option to build your list from scratch (by entering one record at a time) or to upload a file from your computer. Most users upload a file from their computer – as entering one record a time
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would be incredibly tedious for more than a few records – so that’s what we’ll look at in this guide.
The only technical requirement to upload an external file is that it is saved in CSV (Comma Separated Values) or TXT (Tab Delimited Text) format. These are the standard spreadsheet formats, so whether a file originates in Excel, Outlook Address Book, Apple Numbers, FileMaker, ACT!, Quickbooks, or any other spreadsheet / contact management program, one of the available options within that program will be to save (or export) that file in .csv or .txt format.
After you choose the file you’d like to upload, click Next. You should now see the Map File Fields to List Fields section. All you need to do is appropriately label each column of data using the drop down menu to the right of each group. Email Addresses should be labeled as Email Addresses, First Names as First Names, and so on from there. You can use the drop down menu to choose one of our standard fields or to create custom fields of your own. You can also ignore data you don’t want to upload by selecting the Do Not Import option from the same drop down.
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After labeling your data, you’ll set your Import Rules. If this is your first list, you really don’t have to worry about what you select in this section. We’ll talk more about why the Import Rules are important a bit further down.
When you click next, you’ll see your Results page. Duplicate email addresses, incorrectly formatted addresses, and previous unsubscribes / bounces (which you won’t encounter in a first list) are all removed during the upload process, and you can download a report of this data if needed.
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The Results page also includes an Account Snapshot that shows how many records and unique mailable addresses are now included in your entire database. Assuming this is your first list, the total numbers seen here should reflect the number of addresses that were uploaded. If this is your second or third or twentieth list, then this number will be different.
With the upload complete, you should see at least three lists in your account:
The Master List �
My Web Signup Form �
The List You Just Uploaded �
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What purpose do the Master List and Web Signup Form lists serve? The Master List displays each unique email address in your account one time, without any duplicates. As such, it is the home of each address’s Master Record and provides an accurate count of the size of your database.
With VerticalResponse, you can upload as many lists to your account as you want, and an individual email address can appear across as many of those lists as you like. But no matter how many times you upload a single address, it will still reflect a single Master Record that lives in your Master List. That way if you need to change a piece of data associated with a specific email address, like a phone number or mailing address, then that change will update every list in which that email address appears.
So the first time you upload an email address, it will be added to your Master List. If you upload the same address again in later lists, then the Import Rules mentioned earlier (page 15) become important. The Import Rules you set will determine whether email addresses that already appear in your Master List have their data overwritten by any conflicting data in the new list or if the data that already appears in the Master List should be given priority in case of conflicts.
As to the Web Signup Form list – this list is connected to an opt-in form that is automatically included within your account. This form can be found under Lists > Opt-in Forms. This opt-in form is fully customizable and can be added to your website so you can ask visitors to sign-up for your mailing list. If you already have an opt-in form on your site, there is no need to use ours. But if you don’t have an opt-in form, then you should add this form (or a similar one) to your site – there is no better way to start building your list than to give website visitors the opportunity to sign-up.
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Step 3: Building Your First EmailWe have clients whose expertise with email, HTML, and the Internet range from beginner to super nerd. To help ensure such a wide variety of users can get the most out of VerticalResponse, we offer four different email creation tools to cover all levels of expertise. They are:
The Email Wizard � – This is a basic email builder for novice to moderate users. The Wizard gives you the choice of about 300 different email borders and then walks you through adding your content to the border you’ve chosen.
The Email Canvas � – This is a graphical HTML (WYSIWYG) editor for moderate to expert users. The Canvas is far more flexible that the Wizard, and allows for more types of layouts and content editing.
Freeform HTML � – This tool is for anyone (generally an expert user) who has their own HTML design ready to go. All that’s necessary to create an email with this tool is to copy and paste HTML into the provided content box.
Plain Text � – This editor creates simple, plain text emails. You can’t add images, change font styles or adjust layouts with this tool - plain text is as basic as an email can get.
In this section, we’ll take a detailed look at two of these tools: the Wizard and the Canvas. But before we do that, let’s examine a resource that plays a very important part in the email creation process.
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The LibraryBefore you start building your email, you’ll use the Library section of your account to prepare your images. We allow for the storage of up to 25mb worth of images (all at no charge), which you can then use with any of our email tools – except for the Plain Text editor, since a plain text email cannot include pictures.
With the Media Library you can:
Upload Your Own Images � – Have your own images ready to go? Great! Just
make sure they’re in .jpg or .gif format (the two standard image formats on the web)
and upload away.
Search Our Free Library � – Don’t have the right pictures for your message?
Then just use our Free Stock Photo Gallery. There are more than 75,000 pictures
available in numerous categories. You can use as many pictures as you want, as
often as you want, and it won’t cost a thing.
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Resize your images � – Easily create email-friendly graphics that complement
your layout. You can adjust the image by pixel or percent to get the exact size you
need.
Flip & rotate images � – Looking to go vertical (pun very much intended)?
Heck, horizontal is fine too. With the flip & rotate tools you can instantly change the
orientation of your image without bugging your web designer. With a simple click
you’ll have your image pointing in the right direction.
Need to crop? � – The Media
Library comes with a simple
cropping tool that allows you to
capture specific sections of your
image. Simply highlight, crop and
save!
Organize your images � –
Create and manage folders and
subfolders to store all your images. Start by uploading new images then drag-and-
drop from one folder to another. You’ll never waste time searching for frequently
used graphics once you’ve got them organized in folders!
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Library TourHow do you access all these great features from within the Library?
To upload your own images, choose the � Upload Images link in the Lower Left.
Then browse your computer for the file(s) you want to upload.
To choose images from our free Stock Photo Gallery, click the � Search Gallery
Images link,which can be found right next to the Upload Images link within the
Library. This will open a pop-up window where you can either search for photos or
browse through a variety of different categories. Scrolling over an image will open a
larger preview, and you’ll have the option to choose a large or small version of each
picture. Unless you’re planning to edit the photograph, always choose the smaller
version - the larger picture is much too big for an email.
To access our provided photo editing tools, just scroll over the image you want to �
edit. This will present you with the options to either delete or edit the
image. Selecting the edit option will open the image up on a new screen - from here
you’ll be able to easily resize, crop, rotate and flip the image around.
After you make your changes, you can either � Save over the current image or Save
As a new image using the options found in the lower right hand corner of the
screen.
Creating folders and sub-folders is as simple as clicking the � Create New Folder
link on the main page of the library. Then you can just drag-and-drop images
between folders to keep things nice and organized.
To access more information about the Library, go to http://www.verticalresponse.com/tutorials/ and choose the “Other” tab.
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Using the WizardAs noted at the beginning of this stage, the Email Wizard is a basic email creation tool that steps you through the process of adding your content to any one of 300 different borders. The Wizard is a tool perfect for beginners or users who don’t have access to a web designer.
To access the Wizard from within your account, go to Emails > New Email, select the Email Wizard Option, and click Next Step.
The first step to creating a Wizard email is to choose the border you want for your message. The borders are categorized according to design & industry. They all function in the exact same way, aside from two exceptions:
Some of the borders are known as “Color Match” Borders (these appear within ✓
their own marked categories). These are basic borders that allow you to choose your own border color or to match the color of your border to a color in your email logo. If a border is not marked as “Color Match” then you will not be able to change its color later on.
Other borders are “Fixed Width” borders (these can be found under various ✓
categories). This means the width of the border, and by extension the content within that border, is set to a specific pixel width that does not change with the size of the recipient’s email browser. Any borders not noted as fixed width are variable width, which means they expand and contract with the size of the recipient’s email browser.
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Write Your CopyAfter you select your border, the system will take you to the Write Your Copy page. From here you can start adding your text content in the form of a From Label, Subject Line, Salutation, Greeting, and Closing. Let’s look at each step on this page:
1. Enter Your From Label – We recommend that this be
something that is consistent
and rarely changes, like your
company name. You’ll get a
much better response to your
email if the name is one your
recipients recognize.
2. Enter Your Subject Line – The subject line is like the headline of a newspaper
article: it should be concise, interesting and describe what the message is about.
Try to keep the subject under 45 characters, because many email browsers cut the
subject line off at that point.
3. Hosted Version – This check box inserts a link at the top of your email that
points readers to an online version of the email message that we host on your
behalf. If a reader clicks that link, then your email will open up in a web browser. This
is useful since there are still email browsers out there that could break some part
of your email message, and opening the email in a web browser - which will always
support a wider range of HTML and content - will ensure everything looks exactly
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right. Most recipients won’t need to use this, but it’s nice to include for the small
number that might.
4. Enter Your Salutation – This is a great place to personalize your message.
Type Hello, Dear, etc. and follow that with {FIRST_NAME} and we’ll automatically
populate the first name of each recipient within the individual email they receive. So
“Dear {FIRST_NAME}. friend of XYZ Company,” in an email received by Rebecca
will become “Dear Rebecca, friend of XYZ Company”. It’s as easy as that, and
works no matter how big your list is. You can merge any data from your mailing list
into any part of your message simply by writing the name of the field within the {}
brackets.
And note that the Salutation field is optional (you can enter a salutation anywhere in
the message that you like), but it’s a good idea to use this field until you get used to
how the Wizard works. If you don’t have first names on your lists you might just want
to use “Hello” or “Greetings”, or you can use a default value in the event that you
have personalization data for only a portion of your list. Ex. {FIRST_NAME|Valued
Customer}...
5. Greeting – Generally used as an opening paragraph for your email message.
On the section following Write Your Content, you’ll be given the option to add
numerous “offers” or “articles” to your message that will follow the greeting. As with
Salutation, the Greeting field is optional, but should probably be used until you get
the hang of the Wizard.
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6. Closing – The ending paragraph(s) and signature for your message. This will
follow any “offers” that you add in the next section. It is optional, just like the two
steps that precede it.
7. Unsubscribe Message
– As noted in the List
section of this guide,
VerticalResponse takes
care of all unsubscribes
on your behalf. We do this
by automatically inserting
an unsubscribe link at
the bottom of every email
you send out. You can use the provided drop down menu to have that link say
something other than “unsubscribe” (like Remove Me or Leave This List) and
customize the unsubscribe message that introduces the link. In addition you can
choose from a variety of languages for this text if you’re sending your emails to non-
English speaking recipients.
8. Postal Address – Including your organization’s postal address within the
message is required by the US CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (as well as laws within many
other countries, if you’re not in the US). You’re required to enter your current postal
address within this box, and we’ll automatically populate the address if you enter it in
your profile. Your profile can be found under the Account section.
Once you’re done with this page, click Next Step. You’ll now be able to select your first Offer Style.
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Offer StylesOffer Styles allow you to add images, links, and other text content to a Wizard email. You can add as many of these sections as you want to your message – think of them as individual content blocks that stack on top of one another. There are a number of different types of offer styles – some are image only, some are text and link only, and some allow you to add links, text, and images. You’ll find a description and an illustration of each layout to help you choose.
Let’s take a moment to look at an Offer that allows you to add links, text, and images.
1. Content Title – This creates a bold header or title
for this particular offer section. This field is optional, in
case you have no need for a headline.
2. Copy – This is the text message of your offer, and it can be as long or as short as
you like. You can use personalization (such as {FIRST_NAME}) here, the same as
with anywhere else in the message.
3. Click-through URL - Click-through URL – Use this to create a link to
your website. The link has two parts, the link itself and the link text. If we at
VerticalResponse wanted to create a link to our How To Do Everything tutorials site,
we would fill each part out like so:
URL: http://www.verticalresponse.com/tutorials/ Link Text: Visit our How To Do Everything Site
That would create a link at the end of the offer that looked like this:
Visit our How to Do Everything Site
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Offer Image – You can either browse your computer for an image or grab one that
you’ve already saved to your Library. The image will align to the left, right or above
your text depending on which offer layout you selected
When you’re done, click Next.
Edit Email CampaignThis will bring you to the Edit Email Campaign staging area of your email. Your work
has now been saved up to this point, and you can do just about anything with your email from here:
Use the green buttons along the top of the page to choose a different border, ✓
change the color of your current border (if it’s a Color Match border), add a logo, or add more offers.
Use the links in the upper right hand corner to add a Forward to a Friend Link or ✓
do a basic Spam Check of your content – we recommend doing both for all of your emails.
Use the links within the body of the message to edit any part of your content, to ✓
delete offers, and, if you’ve added more than one offer to the message, move offers up and down in relation to each other.
Use the tabs along the very top to launch your email out. You must go through ✓
each tab before you can send your email. To learn more about this, move on to the next section – Launching and Analyzing Your Email - to read about the email launch process.
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To find out more about using the Wizard, take a look at the videos and tutorials found at http://www.verticalresponse.com/tutorials/email/
The Email CanvasThe Email Canvas is a Graphical, or WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get, HTML tool. The Canvas opens with a blank canvas, and provides a full “designer’s toolbar” to assist you in adding and editing content.
With the Canvas you can create emails with multiple columns, change text fonts, colors, and sizes like you would in a word processing program, import images from the Library, turn any text or pictures into links, alter background colors, and so on. The flexibility and customization options are the major benefits of the Canvas.
There are three ways to start adding content to the Canvas editor (listed in order from least advanced to most):
1. The most straightforward way to build a Canvas email is to click the Choose Layout
button and select one of the over one hundred starter layouts we provide.
You can then alter the layouts and add your content. This is the method used by
nearly all Canvas users, and is also the method we’ll look at in this guide.
2. If you have your own HTML design ready to go, but want to tweak it a bit using the
Canvas, then you can use the Edit Source tab to paste in your own code – your
design will then appear in the editing area and you can use our tools to make
changes.
3. If you know your way around a WYSIWYG editor, you can build every single part
of the email from scratch by adding and formatting tables, and then dropping your
content into those tables.
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To get started with the Canvas, go to Emails > New Email, choose the Email Canvas, and click Next Step.
Just as with the Wizard, you’ll first be prompted to enter your From Label and your Subject Line. To repeat:
Enter Your From Label � – We recommend this to be your company name. You’ll get a much better response to your email if the name is one your recipients recognize.
Enter Your Subject Line � – The subject line is like the headline of a newspaper article: it should be concise, interesting and describe what the message is about. Try to keep the subject under 45 characters, because many email browsers cut the subject line off at that point.
Beneath these two steps, you’ll find the Canvas itself, which is divided into an HTML Content and Text Content section. The HTML Content section is open by default, so we’ll start there and discuss the Text Content section later on.
Within the HTML Content area you’ll find the Designer’s Toolbar and the blank canvas itself. The best way to get started is to click the very first button in the toolbar: Choose Layout. (See Item 1 in diagram on page 31). This will open a pop-up window that provides numerous layouts filtered into several categories. Many of the layouts are themed with particular industries in mind, but you can choose any layout you like regardless of whether it matches your industry since, unlike the Wizard borders, every part of each layout can be edited and changed very easily.
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After you choose your layout, you can start adding content. In this guide we’ll look at specific actions like adding images, creating links, adding / editing text, personalizing your message and changing background colors. But performing even relatively simple actions like these can be confusing at first if you don’t know the function of each button within the Designer’s Toolbar. So let’s start with a quick description of the buttons that are most often used, starting from the top row and working to the bottom.
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Now, let’s take a look at some specific tasks that are integral to any email campaign.
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Write / Paste / Edit Text You can write your entire message within the Canvas itself, write it in another program (like Microsoft Word) and then copy & paste it in, or do a mixture of both. The Canvas includes a full range of text editing options (like altering Font type and size, changing colors, adding bullets, and other similar options), so writing & editing text is pretty straightforward and should not be all that different than using any other text editor.
Pasting text from another document editor like Microsoft Word or Google Docs is also straightforward – generally speaking you just copy and paste the text into our system the same way you would do it between programs on your own computer. The copy shortcut is CTRL-C on a PC and Command-C on a Mac. The paste shortcut is CTRL-V on a PC and Command-V on a Mac.
The only snag here is that Microsoft Word, specifically, uses proprietary formatting that can leave behind some foreign or malformed characters if it is pasted directly into an HTML document like an email, website or a blog. To help you get around this problem, we’ve included a Paste from Word option in the toolbar that will remove that proprietary formatting and ensure all your recipients can see your text without any problems.
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Add / Edit / Delete ImagesAdd To add an image, just select where in the message you’d like to place it and click the Insert Image button in the top row of the toolbar. This will open up your Library, where you can select any image you’ve previously uploaded or chosen from our Stock Photo Gallery.
Now you’ll see the Adjust Display page. This page allows you to edit several different properties of the image:
Alternative Text � – The Alt Text for the image should either be a description of
the image or of the action you hope recipients will take. The Alt Text serves two
purposes:
Many email browsers initially block images when an email arrives in the 1. inbox, requiring the recipient to click a button or link to turn the images on.
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Many of these same email browsers will display the Alt Text to the recipients to help them decide if they want to turn the images on or not. So it’s a good idea to be either descriptive or action oriented like “Go here to read more!”
If you have any blind subscribers who use a screen reader to check email and 2. access the internet, their screen reader will read the image Alt Text aloud.
Alignment � – This drop down menu lets you set how the image will align with
nearby text (to the left, right, etc.). If there is no text near your image, then you don’t
need to make a selection here.
Dimensions � – Allows you to alter the height and width of your image. Note that
it’s much better to make alterations using the editor provided within the Library
itself (as described in the Library section on page 19), and we would recommend
against using this field to make changes to the size of your image.
Vertical and Horizontal Space � – These two fields allow you to add some
space around the image to cushion it from whatever other content surrounds it.
Border � – This very simply determines whether your image will have a blue border
around it if you add a link to it. If you don’t want to put a border around a linked
image, then keep the default to 0 here.
Click Insert when you’re finished, and the image will be added to your email.
Now, what if you want to Edit the properties of an image you’ve added? Just select the image and click the Insert Image button. This will pull up the Adjust Display page for that image.
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To Delete any image (either one you’ve added or one that is included in the layout by default), just choose the image and click the delete key on your keyboard.
Create LinksYou can turn any images and text within your email into links (the more opportunity your readers have to click-through to your site, the better!). To do so, highlight the text / select the image you’d like to turn into a link and click the Hyperlink icon within the toolbar. This will open a dialog box where you can enter your link – be sure to include the http:// portion of the link when you type it in. You can also remove links by selecting a created link and clicking the Unlink icon.
Personalize Your Message Using Merge FieldsAs noted in the Wizard section, you can personalize your email using any data from your mailing lists. This is most commonly used to address recipients by their own names, instead of by a generic title like “customer.” Here’s how you do it:
Select the Insert rop down menu (located on the bottom row of icons in the 1.
Designer’s Toolbar).
Choose to insert First Name, Last Name, Title, etc., depending on what information 2.
you want to merge into the message.
You should now see an equivalent merge field in your email that looks like this: 3.
{FIRST_NAME} or {TITLE}.
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The insert drop down menu shows only standard fields. 4.
If your list includes custom fields, you can merge those
by manually entering them. A custom field named
LastPurchase, would be merged as {LastPurchase}.
If you’re worried that you don’t have the appropriate 5.
data for all your records, you can set default text for your
merge field like so: {FIRST_NAME|Reader} or {FIRST_
NAME|Subscriber} - with this example, anyone whose first
name does not appear in your list would see the default
text instead (like Reader or Subscriber) instead. The
system will prompt you to enter this backup text if you use the Insert drop down
menu.
A few other important things to note about creating an HTML email within the Canvas:
There is an ✓ Undo button! This is an easy way to erase mistakes.
The first time you press ✓ Enter while writing text, you’ll notice it creates a double line paragraph break. What if you just want to jump down one line, instead of two? Press Shift-Enter.
Be sure to use the ✓ Save button fairly regularly. This way you won’t lose your work if you get disconnected from VerticalResponse for some reason.
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Earlier, we mentioned that the Canvas is divided into an HTML Content section (described above) and a Text Content section. What is this Text Content section and why is it here?
Every email sent out through VerticalResponse is formatted as multi-part MIME. This means that any HTML email you create and send out using our system includes a backup text version that will be visible to recipients using email clients that, for whatever reason, cannot display HTML. Though these text-only folks will generally be an extremely small percentage of your recipients, including the text backup message ensures they receive a legible message instead of a broken HTML email.
So all you’re doing in the Text Content section is creating this backup text version. You can either write the backup version from scratch or use the Import from HTML button at the very top of this section to pull all the text you wrote in your HTML document into this text version. Using the Import option is usually the way to go - just be sure to go over the imported text to make sure everything looks right after it’s been converted into a single column, plain text document.
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Once you’re done creating both the HTML and text versions of your email, you are ready to move on. And just like with the Wizard tool, you’ll be asked to enter your Unsubscribe message and Postal address:
Unsubscribe Message – As noted in the List Management section of this guide, VerticalResponse takes care of all unsubscribes on your behalf. We do this by automatically inserting an unsubscribe link at the bottom of every email you send out. In this section you can use the provided drop down menu to have that link say something other than “unsubscribe” (like Remove Me or Leave This List) and customize the unsubscribe message that introduces the link.
Postal Address – Including your organization’s postal address within the message is required by the US CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (as well as laws within many other countries, if you’re not in the US). We prefer you enter your address within this box, and will automatically populate the address if you enter this information in your profile. Your profile can be found under the Account section.
When you’re done here, click Next Step. This will save all your work. You can now Launch the email as soon as you’re ready.
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Step 4: Launching and Analyzing Your EmailNow that you’ve designed your email, it’s time to send it out! The launch process consists of six easy steps, each of which is represented by a tab in the email editor. You must step through each of these tabs to send your email. These six steps / tabs are:
1. Edit Email Campaign – Guess what you can do here? Make changes to your
email before you launch it!
2. Preview – This step gives you a preview of both the HTML and Text versions of
your message.
3. Send Test – From here you can send a test of your email to either yourself or to a
seed list of email addresses. There is no cost for sending tests. The only difference
between a test email and a live email is that the subject line in a test message
clearly states that the email is a test and we send out both HTML and text versions
as separate messages. Remember, in a live email the appropriate version will
display depending on each recipient’s preferences.
4. Select Lists – Choose any of your mailing lists as the audience for the email. If
you select more than one list, we’ll de-duplicate between those lists to ensure you
don’t mail the same email address twice.
5. Schedule – You can schedule your email to go out up to 4 months in the future or
send it as soon as possible. The key thing to note when scheduling an email is that
we actually look over nearly every email that is sent through our system before it can
go out the door. This helps us put a full stop to spam, fraudulent messages, and
other emails that violate our Terms of Service, which in turn helps us ensure that the
email campaigns for all our users get delivered at a high rate.
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Because of this policy of looking over every email, we have approval windows that
fall between the hours of 7 AM to 7 PM PST (7, 9, 11, 1, 3, 5, 7), seven days a week.
Each noted approval time represents the guaranteed time an email will be approved.
If you launch an email at 1:30 PM, the next approval time is at 3:00, which means
the email will be approved between 1:30 and no later than 3:00 (as that is the
guaranteed time).
Even if you schedule an email two months in advance and launch it, it will still be
approved by the next guaranteed time on that same day. The email will then sit in
your account – with a status of pending launch – until your scheduled date and time
arrive.
7. Launch – This page is naturally the final step of the Launch process. From here
the system will ensure you’ve followed all the necessary steps that came before,
allow you to set your reply-to address (this is the address that receives any replies to
your message), tell you if any duplicates have been removed from your list, prompt
you to buy email credits if needed, and present you with a big tempting Launch
button to press.
ReportingOnce your email is sent out, you’ll start getting reporting back detailing who opened your email, clicked a link, bounced, unsubscribed, or wasn’t tracked as doing anything at all (these reports are available under Emails > Sent Emails or in the Reports section of the Home Page). How do we define these five categories?
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1. Open – We track an email open based on whether or not an invisible tracking
image within the email was loaded by the recipient. Since many email browsers turn
images off by default (requiring end users to click a link to view images in the email
they receive), only those people interested enough in the email to turn the images
on - or those people who do not have this restriction on their own inbox – will be
reported as an open if they open the email. The need for an image also means that
opens for plain text emails cannot be tracked.
If someone opens an email more than once, we’ll still only count it as a single open.
2. Clicks – The total number of clicks displayed in the report quite simply shows
exactly how many times each link within the email has been clicked. Even if one
person clicks a single link several times, each of those clicks will be counted
individually (the opposite of how opens are treated).
3. Bounces – If an address bounces, it means the email could not be delivered to
that address. Bounces are broken down into two categories:
Hard Bounces ✓ – Bounces that very clearly state the email could not be delivered (i.e. “user unknown”, “no user mailbox here”, etc). We mark these as bounced within the account immediately.
Soft Bounces ✓ – Bounces that are caused by an apparent temporary error. We try to deliver these for three days - if the message still can’t be delivered after this period then we mark the email address as bounced.
4. Non-Responder – A non-responder is an address that cannot be placed into any
of the above categories.
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To help with the analysis and use of this data, we provide graphs showing response percentages in each category, lists showing exactly which links were clicked and how many times that clicking happened, lists showing how your email performed at your top 100 recipient domains, and exportable spreadsheets that show exactly who opened the email, exactly who clicked links, and so on.
In addition to this default reporting, we also provide more advanced tracking options that have to be turned on through Account > Analytic settings. These advanced options are:
Click-to-Conversion (CTC) Tracking � – This requires that you add a snippet of code to a page on your site. Then if someone clicks a link in your email and makes their way to that page, we’ll count them as a conversion. An example of how someone could use this – if the point of your email was to drive subscribers to sign-up for an event, you could add the code snippet to the “thank you for signing up” page that is viewed by everyone who completes the event registration process. In this way, everyone who signs up for the event would be counted as a conversion.
Click-to-Sale (ROI) Tracking � – This allows you to track how much money any email recipients who clicked a link in your email spent once they reached your site. You can then use this data to calculate the Return on Investment for your email (money earned “minus” money spent on marketing.
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ROI tracking works in much the same way as Click-To- �Conversion tracking – you add a snippet of code to your site that we then use for reporting within your account. This does require a bit more technical knowledge, though, as it must be setup on your site in such a way that it can capture the specific amount of money spent by each individual.
Google Analytics �Integration – Our integration with Google Analytics allows users to take our click-through tracking to the next level - you can follow a recipient from an open, to a click, and then to see exactly what that recipient does on your website through your Google account.
Social SharingYou can share an archived version of any sent email to your Twitter or Facebook account from within VerticalResponse by using our Social Sharing feature. To access this feature, just click on any sent email found under Home > Reports or Emails > Sent Emails and then select the Social Sharing option from the Email Actions menu on the left side of the screen.
The first time you select this option you’ll be prompted to connect your VerticalResponse account to Twitter and/or Facebook. This is a simple process which only requires you to click a link and then log-in to your account with either service. VerticalResponse will not have access to your login data, nor will we we have access to any personal information in your Twitter or Facebook accounts.
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After the accounts are connected, you can use the Social Sharing feature within any sent email to post a message with a link directly to your Facebook or Twitter accounts. And whether you connect any accounts or not, you can always copy your archive email link from your account and paste it wherever you want. It couldn’t be easier to share your sent emails with people who might not currently be on your mailing list.
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Marketing Tips
Building Blocks – Relationship BuildingWhenever you interact with a customer or prospect, you are marketing your business. Whether you’re having a simple conversation or your customer is making a large purchase, the customer’s experience has a direct influence on their decision to become a loyal customer. So how do you know where to begin with growing a base of loyal customers? Sure, you need to offer them great products and services, but what are some other ways you can create a meaningful experience for customers?
Ask for Permission Prospects visit your website or walk through the door of your business on a daily basis. How many of them become a customer at that moment? We’d guess most of them don’t. So how can you make it more likely they’ll return and become a customer down the line? Easy answer – ask for their contact information, and give them a good reason to provide it. Getting permission to contact a potential customer puts the ball in your court.
We don’t mean to suggest that you ask for the full postal address with work and home phone numbers. Their first name and email address is all you need to start building the relationship, but other bits of fun information can help create great marketing offers as well.
If you have a website, create an opt-in form to capture contact details online. If you have a storefront, you can use a guestbook or fish bowl to collect business cards. If you talk to prospective customers on the phone, you can simply ask them. Just remember that the barrier to entry should be as low as possible, so the less contact info you request
Hint! For permission-based email marketing to work, it must be:
Relevant ✓
Valuable ✓
Appealing ✓
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the easier it will be to build your list. Asking for unnecessary information like phone numbers (unless you need this info for a real reason) will lead people to wonder why you’re asking for so much and make them less likely to sign-up or join the list. You can always ask for more information once they know you better or after they become a customer.
Remember to be up front with how you plan to use the information you collect. If you’re going to send out a newsletter, then let customers know when they can expect to hear from you. If you’re going to send special offers, be explicit wherever you ask for information so they can see the benefit of signing up. Your email content provides added value to potential subscribers in exchange for their willingness to share their details. When you explain that email subscribers receive exclusive content and get first dibs on sale items, you automatically give them more of a reason to join your list.
Nuture the Relationship for Maximum PotentialCollecting contact info is only the first step in establishing a connection with potential customers. Once you’ve got their email addresses, you have to start providing them with the great information you promised at the time of sign-up. The goals of your email marketing program, and the personalities of your company and customers will determine the kind of information you send. Are you hoping to drive immediate sales with your emails? Or create brand awareness and establish yourself with subscribers? There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach here. What works for the company down the street may not work for you at all.
Hint! What ‘carrots’ can you offer customers to entice them to sign up for emails?
Exclusive offers ✓
Coupons ✓
Valuable content that’s ✓
relevant to your business
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Reporting: How Are You Using It, Or Are You?If you are currently using any reputable email service provider like VerticalResponse, you definitely have access to basic reports about how your email marketing campaigns are doing. The real question is, what are you doing with that information? We’ve put together some ranges for the stats you probably view and some ideas of what you could be doing with that information to make your email campaigns even better.
Open RateCustomers who tend to have great relationships with their customers can get open rates as high as 40%, which is great. Others that have gathered their lists over several years and potentially lost some customers could be in the 14-18% range.
Ideas: Get rid of the dead weight. If you’ve been sending someone email for years and ✓
they’ve never opened your email or clicked a link, then maybe email just isn’t the way you should be contacting them. Why not try calling them or dropping them a postcard to see if that wakes them up? THEN you can try to develop an online relationship with them at a later date. You’ll be mailing to more active people in the long run.
Download your list of NON-RESPONDERS, these are people who have neither ✓
clicked on a link nor opened your email. Then, a week or so after you’ve sent a campaign, send them the same email, but switch up the subject line to something more catchy to see if you can get more people opening.
Don’t try to be cute or misleading in the subject line. Using “Re:” so it appears ✓
as if you’re sending these individuals a reply to a message they’ve sent is deceptive. This practice is now against the Federal law.
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Keep your subject line concise. Some ISPs will shorten the subject line to 30 or ✓
40 characters. You want your recipients to open and read your email; you don’t need to tell the whole story here.
The most important thing to remember is that an open rate is only valid for ✓
people who receive HTML emails. Make sure you evaluate your campaign performance with this fact in mind.
Click RateClick rates usually fall in the 1-3% range. However, if you’ve got an amazing story to tell or great deal to give, then we see it skyrocket to the 8-10% range. Anything over that you’re off the charts. Again it all depends on that relationship you have with your customers.
Ideas: Test including more links in your email. We tested linking our article headlines ✓
and squeezed some more clicks out of people. Make sure all of your images are linked as well.
Put your most important articles or offers above the fold or at the top of your ✓
email.
Targeted, relevant messages not only receive higher open rates, they also ✓
receive much higher click-through rates. Target your messages based upon your subscriber’s demographics, preferences and interests, and past purchase history.
Use graphics or pictures to explain your product, and make the graphic clickable ✓
to direct readers to a web page providing more information.
Lastly, the best thing you can do to increase your rates is give your recipients value. Whether you define value as a discount off of goods and services or a piece of information your recipient can’t do without, this will strengthen your relationship, thereby increasing your response rate.
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Bounce RateWe’ve seen our customers average bounce rates usually come in under .5%. However, lists mailed less frequently can have bounce rates in the 5%-7% range. A list that is mailed for the first time can have up to a 50% bounce rate depending on how “new” it is.
Idea: ✓ Download your list of bounces. If you have their postal addresses, send them a postcard asking them to update their email address. Then direct them to an opt-in form where you capture their new address. You may have to sweeten the deal with an offer on their next purchase or something free like a gift card. It’s worth it for you not to lose that customer.
Unsubscribe RateA regularly mailed list has an average unsubscribe rate around the .2-.5% range. A less frequently mailed email list can creep up to the 2-5% range.
Idea: Keep in more frequent touch with your recipients. Instead of once every 3 ✓
months why not make the time and increase it to once per month. A customer of yours may be on their way out the door, you don’t want that.
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Common Email Marketing MistakesGet PermissionJust like in grade school, you have to get permission first. Unless you have the recipient’s permission, you may be sending spam, which is against the law. Buy e-mail lists on a CD or harvesting them from the Web is bad news. Spam hurts the reputation of your business. The CAN-SPAM Act provides strict requirements about what you can and cannot do; for more information, go to the Federal Trade Commission Web site.
All Sizzle, No Substance Make sure your content is relevant and timely. Make sure your campaigns contain something value to the recipient. You need to provide them with something that they desire. Interesting content should hold their attention long enough for you to market yourself successfully.
Stick to the SubjectPut some thought into your “from” and “subject” lines. People often determine that they do not know the e-mail sender and delete it immediately. The “from” line should be the exact company or newsletter name with which they signed up. The subject line can be the name of the newsletter or a well-thought-out, clever headline that grabs their attention.
What Do You Want?What is your call to action? You can’t get results without one. Do you want the reader to go to your Website? Buy something? Take a survey? Whatever you want them to do, make it clear and simple.
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A/B Split When a list is divided into two equal segments, each of which can be tested with different variables as part an effort to determine which is more effective
Above the fold When you launch your internet browser or while viewing your email in your email reader, the bottom of the window is commonly referred to as the “fold”. The viewable areas before one has to start scrolling are “above the fold”.
API (or Application Programming Interface) An application programming interface (API) allows a software’s functionality to be extended to ‘the outside world’. Examples of APIs include Google’s Gmaps pedometer, where users can map out their running routes.
ASP (or Application Service Provider) An application service provider (ASP) is a company that provides access to software applications via the Internet that otherwise would have to be installed on a user’s personal computer. Current buzzterm for this is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). See also: SaaS (Software as a Service)
Auto Reply When an email recipient is “Out of the Office” or “Away on Vacation” they often set up an automated reply message alerting the sender to this fact.
B2B B2B (business-to-business) companies that primarily sell products or provide services to other businesses.
B2C B2C (business-to-consumer) companies are those firms that sell products or provide services primarily to end-user consumers.
Bandwidth The amount of information that can be transmitted over a network such as the Internet in a specific amount of time.
Blacklists Blacklists are made up of lists of IP addresses belonging to organizations that have been identified as senders of SPAM (unsolicited commercial email). Blacklists are often used by ISPs and corporations as part of the filtering process that determines which IP addresses they prohibit from sending mail to their members.
Blocking When emails are prevented from reaching their intended destination, typically due to action taken on the part of the Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Blog A user-generated website where entries are made in an informal journal style and displayed in date order with the most recent entries first. Readers may or may not be able to comment on specific posts within the blog.
Bonded Sender Program Sponsored by IronPort Systems, the Bonded Sender program identifies legitimate email traffic. Originators of legitimate email can now post a financial bond to ensure the integrity of their email campaign. Receivers who feel they have received an unsolicited email from a Bonded Sender can complain to their ISP, enterprise, or IronPort and a financial charge is debited from the bond. This market-based mechanism allows email senders to ensure their message gets to the end user, and provides corporate IT managers and ISPs with an objective way to ensure only unwanted messages get blocked.
VerticalResponse Marketing Lingo 101
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Bounce A “Bounced” email indicates that an attempt to deliver an email to a particular address has failed. This may occur if the email address is no longer valid or the intended recipient’s ISP and/or email servers were not functioning over a period of 3 consecutive days. See also: Bounce - Hard, Bounce - Soft
Bounce - Hard An email address that is rejected for a permanent reason that cannot be resolved, such as: “the address does not exist”. See also: Bounce
Bounce - Soft An email address that is rejected for what is most likely a temporary reason, such as an overfilled inbox. See also: Bounce
Call-to-Action Phrasing that encourages a reader to take action. For example, “Click here to register for the VerticalResponse newsletter.” or “Get started with your free trial of VerticalResponse today!”
CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) is a federal law that establishes requirements for those who send commercial email. It spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them. Among other measures, the law:
Bans false or misleading header information. ✓
Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
Prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line ✓
cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
Requires that your email give recipients an opt- ✓
out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email.
It requires that commercial email be identified as ✓
an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.
The CAN-SPAM Act also provides for penalties for a number of other offenses, which can be reviewed here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm
CAPTCHA A Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart is used to determine whether or not the user is human. Users are asked to type in a series of distorted images to prove that they are not a machine.
Challenge Response A challenge-response system is a program that replies to an email message from an unknown sender by subjecting the sender to a test designed to differentiate humans from automated senders, also known as “bots”.
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Click-through Rate (CTR), Click Rate An indicator of response to a given email message, as measured by the percentage of recipients that click on a link enclosed in the email. To determine the click-through rate, divide the number of responses by the number of emails sent (multiply this number by 100 to express the result as a percentage).
Co-registration or Co-Reg Co-registration is the process of using other websites to generate opt-in email leads that you can add to your mailing list for marketing purposes. When you reach a co-registration agreement with a site or a network of sites, they will ask new registrants if they would like to receive information from your company as well. If the registrants opt-in (choose to receive mailings), they will be added to your mailing list so you can market to them directly.
Confirmed Opt-in “Confirmed opt-in”, also known as “double opt-in” or “closed loop” in some circles, provides an additional layer of security by requiring that an email account be both subscribed and then verified by a confirmation email before it is added to the list. As a result, only those people with access to the account can respond to the confirmation message, greatly reducing the chance of abuse. For this reason, confirmed opt-in is regarded as the gold standard for secure email marketing.
Content The copy, graphics and images that comprise your email, website or marketing materials
Conversion Rate A metric which measures the percentage of people converted into subscribers or buyers out of the total population exposed to a particular campaign.
Copy The text of the campaign, distinct from the graphics.
CPA (or Cost per acquisition) A payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations.
CPM (or Cost per thousand) In marketing, CPM commonly refers to the cost per 1,000 names on a given list or impressions served. For example, a list using VerticalResponse priced at $10 CPM would mean that the list owner charges $.01 per email address.
CRM (or Customer relationship management) Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broad term that refers to concepts businesses use to maintain and improve relationships with customers. CRM involves collecting, storing and analyzing customer information. CRM enables businesses to provide personalized services to meet their customers’ needs and retain their business.
Database A database is a collection of information stored in a computer in a systematic way, such that a computer program can consult it to answer questions. For email marketing purposes, a database is the software that stores your records or lists. Your database may be in the following forms: ACT!, Filemaker, GoldMine, MS Excel, Access, Netscape, Outlook, Outlook Express, Oracle, Salesforce, Saleslogix, Sybase or many other forms.
Dedupe Deduplication refers to a data cleansing technique where duplicate data is removed from a set.
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Deliverability The ability of the email sender to consistently deliver an email to a recipient’s inbox with HTML and text intact. Marketers operating permission-based email schemes need to carefully consider deliverability due to aggressive SPAM filters.
Domain Generally refers to internet addresses, the memorable form of a website’s numerical IP address. VerticalResponse’s domain name is verticalresponse.com.
DomainKeys Or DKIM: Domain Keys Identified Mail. An anti-spam software application that uses a combination of public and private keys to authenticate the sender’s domain (A name by which a computer connected to the Internet is identified) and reduce the chance that a spammer or hacker will fake the domain sending address.
Double Opt-in “Double opt-in”, also known as “confirmed opt-in” or “closed-loop” in some circles, provides an additional layer of security by requiring that email accounts be both subscribed and then verified by a confirmation email before they are added to the list. As a result, only those people with access to the account can respond to the confirmation message, greatly reducing the chance of abuse. For this reason, double opt-in is regarded as the gold standard for secure email marketing. See also: Opt-in, Opt-in form
Email Campaign When you build an email and send it to your recipients using VerticalResponse this is an example of an email campaign. Your campaign may be a newsletter or may consist of offers. Some marketers may define a campaign as a series of email messages using a common theme, but in the VerticalResponse system, any email sent - even one at a time as opposed to a series of emails - is classified as a campaign.
Email Client An application used to send, receive, store and view email like Outlook, Mac Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, etc.
ESP (or Email Service Provider) Email Service Providers (ESPs) are companies like VerticalResponse that provide a service of enabling a user to send permission-based email campaigns to designated users. They are usually Software-as-a-Service Providers (SaaS) who offer their services in an online fashion. There are also software ESPs.
ESPC The Email Sender & Provider Coalition (ESPC) was formed to fight spam while protecting the delivery of legitimate email. The ESPC members have recognized the need for strong spam solutions that ensure the delivery of legitimate email and have been very active in the war against spam. VerticalResponse is an active member of this organization. For more information on the ESPC, visit www.espcoalition.org.
Feedback Loop Service provided by Internet Service Providers to other providers or mailers who have a good reputation and send a large amount of mail into their network. A feedback loop sends email reported as spam back to the sender so the sender can take action to resolve the problem.
Font A specific size and style of type within a type family.
Footer Some emails include a “footer”. This is the area at the bottom of an email where you might find unsubscribe information.
Forward to a Friend Forward to a Friend refers to an option (usually a link) provided to an email recipient that provides them with an easy method to share that email message with someone else.
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Frequency The intervals at which email marketing efforts are repeated: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc.
From Line The information that appears in the “From” line at the top of the email and typically indicates the identity of the sender.
Hard Bounced Email A hard bounce is an e-mail message that has been returned to the sender because the recipient’s address is not valid. A hard bounce might occur because the domain name doesn’t exist or because the recipient is unknown.
Harvesting The illegal process of obtaining lists of email addresses to send bulk emails, or spam. Harvesting can include list purchase and spam ‘bots’ scanning web pages for email addresses.
Header The header in an email is the part of the email that is not transparent to the recipient unless they have their “View Headers” turned on. This tells the recipient what servers the email is coming from and what programs are being used to generate this email. Headers contain information on the email itself and the route it’s taken across the Internet. Recipients can normally see the “to” (identity of recipient), “from” (identity of sender) and “subject” (information in the subject line) headers in their inbox. You can modify these to influence their decision to open or delete an email.
Headline The announcement recipients see when they open an email. Ideally, the headline expresses the company’s value proposition and encourages the recipient to read further.
Hosted Email A hosted version of an email allows users to view the email message as a web page, thus ensuring that all formatting remains intact. VerticalResponse does this for you for free.
House List A permission-based list that you build yourself. Use it to market, cross sell and up-sell, and to establish a relationship with customers over time. Your house list is one of your most valuable assets.
HTML (or Hypertext Markup Language) A “markup” language designed for the creation of web pages and other information viewable in a Web browser.
HTML Email HTML email is simply an email created with HTML that allows for the display of images as opposed to simple text. Ninety five percent of all email readers have the ability to display HTML emails, which are more visually appealing and attention-grabbing than mere text. However since 2005, many readers have the default where images are “turned off” or not viewable by the recipient. For this reason you need to make sure your recipients add you to their address book so you’ll always go into the inbox where images will show.
IP Address The Internet Protocol (IP) address is simply a computer’s address. The IP address refers to the numerical component of an internet address or domain name. An IP address in general looks like this: 123.45.6.789
ISP (or Internet Service Provider) Internet Service Provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, Comcast and various local phone companies are common ISPs.
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Landing Page The page on a website where the visitor arrives (which may or may not be the home page). In terms of an email campaign, if a user wants to track a campaign separately they set up an additional page for recipients to visit. This way they can track distinctive traffic to this page from their email.
Layout The arrangement of content within an email. A layout is designed to optimize the use of space while presenting the critical content in the portions of screen most likely to attract the recipient’s immediate attention.
Links Text links, hyperlinks, graphics or images which, when clicked or when pasted into the browser, direct the reader to another online location.
Load Time The length of time it takes for a page to open completely in the browser window. You’ll want your load time to be as fast as possible.
Look and Feel The degree to which design, layout and functionality are appealing to prospects and fits the image the business is trying to portray.
Mailing List A set of email addresses designated for receiving specific email messages.
Mailto: An HTML command that allows collection of email addresses from a website. When readers click on a link (such as <a href=”mailto:[email protected]”>) their default email program composes an email message to send to that address.
Multi-part MIME Email Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard for the format of email. Virtually
all Internet email is transmitted in MIME format. This simply means that two versions of the email are sent, one graphical and one text. The appropriate version is then directed to the recipient based on the recipient’s email client’s preferences.
Navigation The path by which a user can click from page to page on a website and move around within a page.
Nth Sampling When a subset of the list is constructed based on every Nth individual. For example, if you need to create a sub-list with 100 members from an overall list of 1,000 names, every tenth person is selected. If you need to create a sub-list of 5,000 from a list of 100,000, then every twentieth name is chosen.
On Demand The phrase “On Demand” refers to a service or feature that is available for immediate access whenever an individual chooses to access it.
Open Rate The number of HTML message recipients who opened your email, typically measured as a percentage of the total number of emails sent, although calculation methods may differ. The open rate is considered a useful metric for judging response to an email campaign but it should be noted that open rates for text emails can’t be calculated.
Open Relay An open relay is an email server configured so that anyone on the internet can dispatch email. Once an acceptable means of sending email in the past, spammers have used open relay to re-route their email through a third party to avoid detection. The CAN SPAM Act of 2003 made it illegal to send spam through an open relay.
Opt-in Opting-In is the action a person takes when he or she actively agrees, by email or other means, to receive communications from an email sender. There are different types of opt-in practices, some of which are more demanding than others. See also: Double Opt-in, Opt-in form, Single Opt-in
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Opt-in form A form that website owners can add to their site to collect newsletter signups from visitors. See also: Double Opt-in, Opt-in, Single Opt-in
Opt-Out Opt-out email marketing assumes the recipient wants to receive email unless they specifically ask to be removed from the list - in other words, “opt-out” or “unsubscribe”. If readers fail to state explicitly that they no longer wish to remain on the list, they can expect to receive messages until they make their desire known. Response rates tend to be lower when sending opt-out email, so be prepared for this result when you’re analyzing your campaigns.
Payoff When offering customers further information, such as a whitepaper or article via a link in an email, the payoff is the information they gain access to when clicking on that link.
Permission-based email he practice of only sending email messages to those recipients who have agreed (or asked) to receive them.
Personalization The practice of writing the email to make the recipient feel that it is more personal and was sent with him or her in mind. This might include using the recipient’s name in the salutation or subject line, referring to previous purchases or correspondence, or offering recommendations based on previous buying patterns.
Phishing In a phishing scam, a spammer, posing as a trusted party such as a bank or reputable online vendor, sends email messages directing recipients to Web sites that appear to be official but are in reality fraudulent. Visitors to these Web sites are asked to disclose personal information, such as credit card numbers, or to purchase counterfeit or pirated products. See also: Sender-ID, Spoofing
Preview Pane Email programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Entourage, and Mac Mail allow users to view email through a preview pane. The preview pane is important to bear in mind when composing the opening lines of an email.
ROI (Return on Investment) A measure of the profit realized and/or costs saved at a company, or as the result of a specific project within the company. ROI measures how effectively the firm uses its capital and resources to generate profit; the higher the ROI, the better. An ROI calculation is sometimes used along with other approaches to develop a business case for a given proposal.
SaaS (Software as a Service) Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet. See also: ASP (or Application Service Provider)
Salutation This is the area in an email where you address your recipient. Examples are “Dear Customer”, “Hello Larry”, and “Dear Member”.
Sender-ID Sender-ID is an email industry initiative championed by Microsoft and other industry leaders as a technical solution to help counter spoofing - the #1 deceptive practice used by spammers. See also: Phishing, Spoofing
Signature File A short block of text at the end of a message identifying the sender and providing additional information about them.
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Single Opt-in Under single opt-in formats, businesses only mail addresses that have been actively subscribed to their list, typically by completing a web form, filling out a business reply card or sending an email to a specific address. Because the registration process is proactive, a single-opt in policy offers a higher level of security than the opt-out approach, but also has the following limitations:
Since single opt-in procedure does not require email address verification, it is possible to register other people without their consent, merely by having knowledge of that person’s email address.
A mistyped address or the entry of a bogus email account that happens to belong to someone else can result in a company mailing a customer who has not registered to receive messages.
Single opt-in email policies are susceptible to spam traps. Spam traps are essentially email addresses or domains that have not registered to receive any email. Therefore, any messages they do receive must be spam. The problem for marketers comes when people deliberately subscribe spam trap addresses to their lists, or one is inadvertently added. This scenario exposes the mailer to blacklisting by ISPs or the organization operating the spam trap. See also: Opt-in, Opt-in form
Soft Bounced Email A soft bounce is an email message that gets to the recipient’s mail server but is returned undelivered before it reaches the recipient. A soft bounce might occur because the recipient’s inbox is full and may be deliverable at another time or may be forwarded manually by the network administrator in charge of redirecting mail on the recipient’s domain.
Spam Trap A spam trap is a seemingly valid email address used to identify spam messages. The idea is to take an address that hasn’t been subscribed to any email lists and monitor the email it receives. As it wasn’t subscribed to any email, anything it receives must be unsolicited - in other words - spam.
SPAM, UCE SPAM or Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) is unsolicited email, particularly of a commercial nature. Sending email to people who have not requested to receive messages from you will likely result in SPAM complaints.
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) An email authentication system that verifies that a message came from an authorized mail server. SPF is designed to detect messages from spammers and phishers who falsify the sender’s IP address in the email header.
Spoofing Email spoofing involves forging a sender’s address on email messages. It can be used by malicious individuals to mislead email recipients into reading and responding to deceptive mail. These fake messages can jeopardize the online privacy of consumers and damage the reputation of the companies purported to have sent the messages. Spoofed email often contains phishing scams. See also: Phishing, Sender-ID
Subheads (or Subheadings) A line within a body of text that serves as a subtitle for the content that follows. Subheads break up paragraphs of copy and make the page more attractive or easy on the eye. They also often act as signposts indicating specific topictures, offers, promotions, etc.
Subject Line The email subject line is the line that appears in an email client indicating the topic of the message. This is the line used to entice the recipient to open the email and read further. It is the most important part of your email.
Suppression List A list of addresses that is never sent emails. When a campaign is launched, addresses on the suppression list are automatically removed from the mailing list for that campaign. Suppression Lists are used for organizations to remain CAN SPAM compliant as well as segmenting different recipients.
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Targeting The ability to serve messaging to the users most likely to be receptive to the message, based on their geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics.
Teaser A message, or part of a message, designed to arouse curiosity and interest and cause the reader to explore further, but without revealing too much detail about the offer being promoted.
Timing Scheduling the email campaign to reach the audience at the most opportune time for it to be read. Timing might be seasonal (for example, vacation or school), dependent on holidays, etc. or mailings might go out on a standard schedule. Even the day of the week and what time of day the mailing goes out are important considerations: for example, a Friday afternoon mailing may be great for retailing customers, but bad for business-to-business customers.
Tracking Collecting and evaluating the statistics so that one can measure an event, such as a click or an open.
Type Size A size of typewritten or printed character. For example, a serif type (or typeface), a sans-serif type, 10 point type, 14 point type for print, size=1, size=2 for the web.
Unique Forwarders The number of unique individuals who forward an email. When the number of unique forwards is totaled, each person that forwards a particular email is counted just once, no matter how many times they forward that message.
Unsubscribe When the owner of an email address unsubscribes, this indicates that the individual no longer wishes to receive emails from your organization. People can unsubscribe either by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of each email sent through our system, or by replying to the email with the word “Unsubscribe” in the subject line. This process is also known as opting-out. Including an unsubscribe mechanism is now part of CAN-SPAM Federal Legislation.
Up-Selling / Cross-Selling Presenting customers with an opportunity to purchase products, services or accessories that are related to items in which they have shown an interest or purchased previously.
URL A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the technical term for a web address, such as http://www.verticalresponse.com
Usability A measure of how easy it is for a user to complete a task. In the context of Web pages this concerns how easy it is for a user to find the information they require from a given Web site.
Value The overall appeal and usefulness of the product or service to the prospect.
Variable Envelope Return Paths (VERP) The method of using a different envelope return / reply path for each recipient of an email message to ensure that the correct address is always processed in the case of an unsubscribe or bounce.
Viral Forwards The number of referrals sent.
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Viral Marketing Elements and functions included in a communication that encourages and allows recipients to pass the offer along to others, thereby leveraging the marketing effort (“tell a friend,” “please forward,” etc.).
Viral Responses The number of recipients who received the referral, opened it and clicked on a link.
Web 2.0 The definition of the term Web 2.0 is an evolving one, but it is generally agreed that Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of Internet services that let people collaborate and share information online. In contrast to the first generation, in Web 2.0, the internet functions as a computing platform that serves web applications to end users. In this way, it provides an experience closer to desktop applications than the traditional static Web pages.
Web-friendly Fonts Almost all web browsers are capable of displaying four primary fonts properly: Times, Arial, Helvetica, and Verdana, as well as their variants (Arial Narrow, Times New Roman, etc.) If a web developer decides to stray from one of these fonts he or she risks browser compatibility problems and the prospect that their pages may render inaccurately when viewed through certain web browsers.
Whitelists Whitelists are lists of commercial emailers (including ESPs) who have been approved to send mail through the ISP. The ISP (internet service provider) requires a list of IP (internet protocol) addresses that email will be sent from, and in some cases a test period where the commercial emailer will be approved or rejected
